Memories of the Past - Redux
by Pyromanic Kittie
Summary: OC Yuzuki loses her memories of the past and is thrown for a loop when an unlikely group stops as her house to rest from a fight. Two of the group members seem to be familiar to her but she can't figure out why and eventually one of them begins to worm his way into her heart and mind. This is a do over of my original version of this same story, just upgraded it a bit. Enjoy!
1. Prologue

**Author's Note: This story was originally written back in 2008 when I was in high school. I was looking it over a while back and I decided that it really, REALLY needed an update since I've changed a lot since then. So here is the updated and hopefully just as good (or better) version of Memories of the Past.**

**I really hope you all enjoy this improved story!**

**Thanks!**

**Pyro**

* * *

**Prologue**

"State your name."

"Yuzuki Sanzza."

"Age."

"Sixteen."

"State your business."

"Memory removal."

"State the incidents."

"The murder of my family and everything before it."

"Everything?"

"Everything."

"Do you understand the consequences of what this process can have?"

"Yes."

"You are still willing to remove all of your memories before that incident?"

"Of course."

"Step inside."

I stood from the chair I had been sitting in and entered a cylindrical chamber. Moving into the room I made my way to a ring in the center of the room and stood in it like I had been told before the interview. A mechanical female voice came over the loudspeaker.

"Name: Yuzuki Sanzza. Age: Sixteen. Physical Appearance: one hundred and sixty-five centimeters in height, thirty seven kilograms in weight, purple to black curly hair to mid back, gray eyes, light to fair skin pigmentation. Reason for entering the chamber: Memory Extraction."

The recording ended and I fidgeted with my sleeves. I kept telling myself this is what I wanted. What I needed. I couldn't handle the nightmares anymore. I couldn't handle the pain and regret. I couldn't handle seeing the faces of the people who had abused me, who loved me, and who left me. The face of my childhood crush crossed my mind. His blood red eyes and spiky hair would always be a constant reminder of what I had lost. There had been a promise, a future meeting. Part of me wanted to keep that memory, but I wasn't sure if I could handle it, or if they could leave selected memories. Maybe I should have asked.

_Note to Self. Remember to ask more questions first._

_As if I'll remember this note to self..._

The speaker clicked and I jumped a little. "Are you ready Ms. Sanzza?"

I nodded. I didn't trust myself not to ask if I could make some changes to my request if I opened my mouth so I didn't try. I squirmed nervously as I waited for things to start while trying not to think about things I was starting to regret knowing I would be losing.

"Just take a deep breath and relax for us Ms. Sanzza. I'm going to shut off the lights to the room now and we will get started."

I nodded again and took a deep breath as I tried to calm down. I didn't want to forget my family. I didn't want to forget that boy that promised me he would come back for me. I didn't want to let go of the few good memories I had but were they really worth the horrible times I went through?

I wasn't sure anymore...

The lights went out and I was standing in the dark for a long moment before what I was standing on suddenly lit up; now I was glowing from beneath. A whirring started up. Quietly at first but it was slowly getting louder.

"I want you to start at the first memory you want removed. I want you to think about it in detail. Focus on it. Remember everything you can about it. Then I would like you to go backwards from there."

I nodded, which I seemed to be doing a lot, though I wasn't sure he could see me, and began to think about the day my family died. It was hard. I didn't want to think about it. I didn't want to remember it. My mind actively repelled from trying to remember that horrible day. It was quite the struggle.

_Why am I even doing this...?_

_Because I want to forget everything._

_Everything...?_

I was arguing with myself again but I suddenly didn't want to forget everything. I didn't want to lose my family. I didn't want to lose that boy. I didn't want to lose...

"Ms. Sanzza you need to focus."

I was trying, I really was but it was so very difficult. Was I really ready to give it all up?

_I'm not so sure anymore..._

The whirring of the machine was so loud; I couldn't hear the sound of the voice coming from the speaker anymore. Images flashed through my mind of my family, my first crush, the nightmares, and the horror. The images flashed through faster and faster, I tried desperately to hold onto the ones that I wanted and let go of those I didn't; it wasn't working.

I clutched desperately to the images of my parents, of Hinatea my little sister, as they began to be ripped away from me until I couldn't even think of their faces anymore.

As the whirring ended the image of the boy I had been in love with and was still partially in love with popped into my mind.

_He promised to come back..._

_He never came back, he left you like all the others, forget him just like you are forgetting your family._

I hesitated and his image wavered, leaving my mind forever.

_No! Hiei!_

And then it was gone, it was all gone; everything I ever loved was gone.

Or was it...?

The doors opened to whispering, people talking about an incomplete process, of side effects, of permanent damage. And yet, I didn't hear any of it, all I could think about was I could still feel and see the hazy outlines of people I was sure were my family. I felt loved, but now I couldn't even remember their names let alone what they all looked like.

But the one that I saw the most, the one I felt the most was the hazy image of a boy and his promise.

"_**I'll come back for you one day, and then no one will hurt you anymore."**_

I yearned for that one simple promise but it wasn't his voice I heard saying it, it was mine. I couldn't call up the sound of his voice or what he looked like. Only one thing came up when I tried to catch the fleeting edge of a memory that I knew I hadn't let go of, one thing I was sure I would see in dreams for the rest of my life: red eyes.

_What was his name...?_


	2. The Meeting

**Chapter 1: The Meeting**

I was running through the woods screaming for them, trying to get there before it was too late. There's a clearing up ahead. I started running faster, but it's no use. My worst fear had come true.

Three hazy figures lay strewn about a meadow hidden deep in a forest I no longer recognize. Three oh so familiar figures with faces that are just outside of my visual range, like the fleeting ghost that haunts the edges of your visions but is never solidly there when you look for it. They're dead, I know they are, and there is nothing I could do to save them because part of me knows they were dead before I could reach them, but I am pained by their deaths. These strangers, yet not strangers who haunt me, taunt me, with their gruesome deaths. The ground vibrates, I know if I stay here longer I will be the next victim of the beast that tore into the innocent flesh of these three unfamiliar yet so familiar forms, but I can't go. They're pleading with me, like they want me to remember, or they want me to forget I've never been sure of which.

The male form has his hand encircled around the wrist of what I assume is a female's arm as he has the top half of his body curved around the smaller female's form; I don't know where the rest of him went. I'm nearly certain the arm is female because further away from the arm is the rest of a body mutilated beyond total recognition except for a few things that indicate its female; her death was personal.

The ground rumbles, I can hear trees to my right being ripped from the ground I know the beast that did this is here again and I have no time to run, but of course I try anyway. As I turn away from the sound to run I can feel claws sink into my leg and more rake across my back.

I wake up screaming. It's one of my worst nightmares that haunts me as it has for many nights. My back throbbed as if the pain had been real, and maybe it had been.

Maybe I should have asked what they meant by side effects or incomplete removal while I was at the hospital.

_Note to self, ask more questions._

_I think I've told myself this one before..._

"I wish I could have done something to save them. No one needs to die like that." I sighed as I sit up in bed to cast a quick glance out my window to see if the sun is rising and come face to face with bright red eyes staring back at me from outside my window. I jump and squeal, though I will never admit that to anyone if anyone ever actually asks, and quickly turn on the lights, but when I turn back to the window, nothing was there.

_That was really weird... _I think to myself as I stand at the window for a moment longer to see if I was imagining things. _I'm pretty sure I'm not sleeping..._ I pinch myself just to be sure. Yep, that smarts, I'm pretty sure I'm awake and those were definitely not the hazy rendition from my mind so I can say with fair certainty that they were definitely right outside my window.

_Was that the man from my mind...?_

_How many demons out there have those same colored eyes?_

_Note to self. Find out what percentage of the demon population have red colored eyes._

…

_Additional Note to Self; exclude all red colored contacts._

I sat back down on the bed with a huff and a long sigh, my nightshirt bunching around my knees and lean across the nightstand to pick up the necklace glinting in the lamp light. It's a thin gold chain with a shiny stone attached to the end of it. I had it checked and learned it was nothing more than a moonstone, if an oddly colored one at that, but to me it was more precious than a diamond.

Gripping the necklace tightly, I fall back on the bed, closing my eyes, and wonder who had given it to me. Was it from a parent? Obviously I had to have been birthed by someone or I wouldn't be alive, even if I can't remember what she looked like.

Or was it from a lover? That hazy image of a boy with red eyes like the ones I am certain I saw outside my window popped into my mind as I try to think back on anything.

"_**I'll come back for you one day, and then no one will hurt you anymore..."**_

My voice echoes in my head as I think of the words I am sure someone had said to me once.

"Where are you now? When I need someone most... Where is the one who promised to keep me from being hurt? Do you even exist or did I make the whole thing up?" I question as my eyes open slowly, slipping on the necklace.

In the quiet of the waning hours of the night I hear a thud coming from my family room the floor below.

_What in the hell? First I see a bloody pair of eyes staring at me from the window and now someone's trying to break into my bloody house? What do they take me for, a pathetic little girl who can't defend herself? What a load of crock that is._

I grumble to myself as I narrow my eyes and search for my katana, which, of course, is never where it needs to be at such moments. I finally find the damn thing, hiding under the bed.

Why it was down there? I will never know…

Another thud brings my thoughts back to the intruder in my house who clearly feels there's no reason to be quiet.

_They have another thing coming..._

Cursing silently at my katana for not being where I had left it last I turn off the light and wait a few moments for my vision to adjust to the utter blackness left behind.

When I'm able to see adequately well, seeing as I didn't need my night vision up to par as this was my own house, I slowly opened my bedroom door and slid around it as quietly as possible. Which I have to say is pretty quiet which makes me quite proud of myself. That is, until I fumbled over the pile of towels I had left on the landing to do when I finally got around to doing laundry.

_I should really do my laundry..._

_Really? You're thinking about that now when you have an intruder in the house?_

_Right... I should probably stay on task._

As I made my way to the top of the stairs I could vaguely make out the shape of a person passing the base of the stairs; I unsheathed my weapon silently. While I readied myself I had a passing notion that he had heard my sword leaving the sheath as he froze for a fraction of a second.

_Well that was weird; it's not possible he heard me._

I leapt from my perch on the top of the stairs with every notion of swiping my sword through the trespasser, and the sureness that I had the upper hand with my preemptive strike. That is, until I realized that my nightshirt wasn't going to allow me to stretch my legs that far apart to make the jump.

_This is going to suck._

My left foot hit a stair while the right hit nothing but air and I tumbled completely ungracefully down the stairs, losing my only weapon in the process. I landed at his feet in more or less a heap with my nightshirt rolled up to my navel with my underwear completely exposed.

_Look at the bright side, at least you remembered to actually wear underwear to bed with your nightshirt._

_That does not help the situation._

"I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to startle you. I didn't think there was anyone even in this house, it's so far out in the middle of nowhere." He said as he held out a hand to help me up. After a pause I took it and gingerly got to my feet so as to not roll up the nightshirt anymore. He was doing a fabulous job of not looking at anything lower than my eyes.

_What a perfect gentleman, not trying to sneak looks at my underwear. Though I'm pretty sure they're nothing all that attractive anyway._

_Note to Self: wear some type of pajama bottoms to bed from now on. Oh and no more tight nightshirts that extend past the knees._

You're saying polite things about a man who just broke into your house.

You're right, I'm sorry. Wait, am I arguing with myself? Oh dear god, how long have I been doing this?! Has he just been watching me act like some crazy person?! Well... crap...

"I... We needed a place to stay..." His voice interrupted my thoughts making me hope that I hadn't really been standing there that long, but certainly long enough that he felt the need to clarify himself. Starlight filtered in illuminating both I and the man before me in its pale glow; he paled.

"Yuzuki...?" He asked slowly.

"Aye, that's my name." I answered just as slowly, cocking my head to one side and trying to use my peripheral to spot where my katana had slid off to.

"Yuzuki Sanzza?"

"Err... Aye? That's still me." I chanced a glance at his face and saw the completely stupefied expression which earned him a look. Did I know him? Or better yet, did **he** know **me**?

"It is you. I thought... I heard there was an accident and your family died. Everything I heard indicated you died too." said Kurama.

"My... Family...? You- You know them? You know me?" I gave up on looking for the sword; he had my full attention now anyway.

"You don't remember?" He looked fully concerned. "You're parents and your sister, died in an accident. People claimed that you had died as well. I came looking, I didn't want to believe them, but I couldn't find you or anything about you. For months and months I looked for something, anything but I never found you. It's been years since then. I thought... I thought I lost you forever."

I looked at him long and hard and tried for the first time in a very long time to remember. I caught fleeting images of red hair similar to the man standing before me and matching green eyes, but the images were hazy, as if I saw them through a frosted window looking out into a fog, and when I tried to grasp them the slipped further and further away.

"I'm sorry..." I murmured with an uncomfortable shrug. "I don't remember... anything really... Nothing before three years ago..."

His mouth gaped open as he stared at me in disbelief. I almost wanted to take my words back at the look on his face; I guess I won't be earning any gold stars for telling him I had no clue who he was.

"Nothing?"

I shook my head. "I get flashes I guess. I see hazy images of red hair and green eyes like you but honestly I can't remember anything else. I don't even know a name for you." I quickly looked away as I could feel tears sting my eyes. This was the first time in a long time that I actually wished I could remember things. I wanted to wipe that look off of his face so badly.

"It's alright." He answered finally. "We can just start over."

When I looked back he was smiling this bright radiant smile. I couldn't resist, I smiled too, and then blushed when I realized what I was doing.

"My name is Shuichi Minamino but to my friends I am Kurama."

"Kurama?" The name tumbled out of my mouth as if I was speaking a foreign language that I had learned years ago but had forgotten how to speak until this moment. "I'm... err... Well I guess you know who I am." I flushed.

He laughed and was about to say something when a loud voice called from outside.

"Kurama! What is taking so long?! Is the house safe or not? I'm not getting any younger out here. It's not like I need all the blood I'm losing or anything."

I gasped, startled by the unfamiliar sound of another male voice outside my home.

Kurama laughed. It seemed strained, or maybe nervous, but it didn't sound happy like it had moments ago. "It appears that I have forgotten my friends outside. As I was trying to say earlier, we have been wounded and were looking for a place to rest up for our injuries."

I blinked and shook my head as I tried to figure out what he was asking.

"Do you want to stay here...? Is that what you're asking me?"

He flushed slightly. "If you would allow us to I would be greatly honored." He smiled a brilliant smile and I realized how attractive he was.

_Get your head back in the game._

_Note to Self: try not to fall for strange men breaking into your house late at night._

_Oh yeah, like that one's going to work real well._

I leaned over the couch and knocked off the pillows as I reached for the seat cushions.

"This will fold out into a couch-bed and I have three more beds upstairs. I don't know how many people you have with you but if you have any females and need more beds I guess they could sleep in my room." I leaned up and watched as he quickly averted his gaze from my backside.

I blinked several times before I realized what he was doing and then I flushed a red that matched his hair.

_Note to self don't lean over a couch in nothing but a nightshirt and panties._

Oh who was I kidding, I was enjoying the attention; at least secretly.

He smiled, embarrassed I assumed, but didn't say anything as I didn't say anything.

"That's wonderful; we only need the four beds." Kurama said after he cleared his voice.

I shrugged and crossed my arms over my chest, it's a little uncomfortable but as I was standing here I apparently forgot I was not wearing a bra and now I was slightly embarrassed. "Well two of the beds are in the same room but you're welcome to them."

He bowed politely. "That is very gracious of you." He turned and headed towards my front door and I realized I had no idea how he had gotten in in the first place. I certainly didn't see any problem with the windows and the door appeared to be completely intact; I was utterly flabbergasted.

"I'm sorry it took so long boys. The nice home owner has offered her house to us for the remainder of the night. We better be good house guests." He stepped back to let the people outside of the house enter.

Three men stepped inside, two of which were toting serious injuries.

"This is Yusuke." Kurama said pointing to a boy with thick dark hair. There wasn't enough light in the room to really get a good look at him.

"This is Kuwabara." Kurama said pointing to a boy with messy hair. I couldn't guess the color but he was taller than the first boy.

"And this..." Kurama looked at me with all too knowing eyes.

_What does he know that I don't?_

_Everything..._

"This is Hiei..." He finishes pointing to a boy not much taller than myself with spiky hair.

The name tugged at the frayed edges of ravaged memories of things I clearly couldn't remember, and then I saw his eyes.

_Those eyes! Those are the eyes from my window. This is the peeping tom?_

My eyes narrowed at him as I realized it could really have been a peeping tom and not some other possible memory in my head that had the same matching eyes. Nope not at all.

_Clearly you're pretending you don't remember anything else, quit deluding yourself._

_Ugh I'm chastising myself in my own mind._

The boy, Hiei, noticed I was staring at him and narrowed his eyes at me as well.

I flushed a color that probably matched his eyes, if he could see it. "What?!" I snapped trying to cover my embarrassment.

"You're staring and I do not appreciate it female. If you're going to keep staring you are going to have problems."

I gaped at him as Kurama stepped in front of me. "Now Hiei... She has offered us our home..."

I cut him off as I put a hand on his arm and moved around him. I had a feeling that this man in front of me would not take me seriously, ever, if I didn't stand up for myself.

"If you have a problem with me I have several sharp and pointy objects which I would truly enjoy slicing through the flesh of the idiot who thought I couldn't see him staring at me from the window, but I'm willing to overlook that if you learn to keep your trap shut and your eyes to yourself."

He glared at me as if death were coming for me itself. I had to will myself to stay in my spot so as to not give away that he did scare me.

_Note to self, don't piss off the short one. He can kill you in your sleep._

_Oh _that's _a comforting thought..._

Yusuke and Kuwabara stared at me.

"What?!" I snapped again as I felt heat creep up my neck and cheeks.

"I think we should recoup and rest for the evening. Yuzuki-san do you have any first aid items?" Kurama turned to me as he spoke.

The looks of surprise of the two of the taller men were priceless and something shifted in those red eyes of the shorter one, but it was gone too quickly for me to see it.

"Yes of course. Please make... Uh..." I stopped as I realized I didn't actually want them sitting on the furniture until I saw how much blood was on my new guests. Replacing furniture when you have no money is a little difficult.

"We'll wait right here and not touch anything." Kurama said with a smile as he stared pointedly at the two of the tallest of the group. "Nothing..." He repeated while staring at them.

"Alright." I answered as I disappeared into the spare bathroom downstairs. I never knew why I had so many medical supplies but it appeared they were going to come in handy. After grabbing the large collection of supplies and dumping them into a dry tub I filled another one up with warm water and grabbed several old towels. Balancing everything I had grabbed I precariously moved through the bathroom and back into the living room.

"Let me help you." Kurama said as he moved over and grabbed several of the items from my hands. "Where would you like them?"

"On that table." I indicated to the one in question with my elbow. Setting things down on the table I turned to find the light switch only to slam my face into the solid chest of Hiei.

_Dear god he's muscled. It's really sexy._

_Oh lord what am I thinking?_

I backed up quickly and smacked into the table knocking the basin of water off the table.

In movements I could hardly see Hiei snatched my wrist, yanked me into him and caught the water basin before it could spill all over the hardwood floors.

_Holy cow... This is... _Way _too comfortable. I am so screwed._

His heart beat quietly against my cheek as I tried hard not to do anything too embarrassing. This felt familiar, like I had been held to the chest of the person holding me now. But that couldn't right, could it...?

"Uh..." I started as I tried to figure out what to say.

He stiffened as if he realized what he had done and suddenly pushed me away; smacking me into the bucket he was holding and dumping it all over me.

_Note to self. This is not a good time to remember you're wearing a white nightshirt._

Quickly I covered my chest with my arms. "Smooth move..." I muttered as I tried not show off for my new house guests.

"Quit staring before I rip your eyes out of your head." I snapped as I noticed Yusuke and Kuwabara trying to gain x-ray vision so they could see through the now very wet nightshirt.

Oddly enough it wasn't Kurama who came to my rescue, it was Hiei. With a death glare. Aimed at his friends this time.

_Oh thank god I am so not on the receiving end this time. At this point I don't think I can handle it; embarrassment overload._

"I, uh..." I cleared my throat. "When you're done with cleaning up there's a bed in the couch and three upstairs. Two in the center room and one in the room to the far right; you all can argue over who gets which one. I on the other hand am going back to my room. If any of you get any ideas about anything with me, I will cut your dick off and feed it to you in the morning, 'kay?" I smiled as sweetly as I could, but it was obvious that it was creeping the two receiving it out.

I turned to Kurama and smiled. "Thank you for giving me something new instead of the things I couldn't remember anymore."

_I'm sure that was way more cryptic than it should have been._

I made my way out of the room and to the stairs before I bounced off a rock solid chest.

"Jesus..." I grumbled as I reeled back from running into Hiei yet again. "The least you could do is warn me that you're going to stop in front of me, again."

"I know you from somewhere, don't I?" He growled as he looked down at me.

I blinked rapidly several times as I tried to comprehend what he was saying to me. "Honestly? I have no clue. I can't remember anything before three years ago. I have, hazy images of a boy, or what I assume is a boy, with red eyes that match yours, but I'm clueless outside of that."

The muscle in his jaw ticked, and I could clearly tell he was clenching his jaw tightly against what I had just said.

He opened his mouth, but before he could say anything Kurama came around the corner.

"Hiei." He said in a clipped tone. "I think you should let her go back to bed."

The muscle in his jaw twitched again but he moved out of my way.

I looked over my shoulder at Kurama before I turned back to Hiei and caught his eyes sliding away from my upper chest. I paused and thought about saying something, but he hadn't really been staring at my breasts so instead I turned to the stairs and headed up them; snatching my katana from one of them as I made my way up.

In my room I leaned against the closed door and sighed. It was a long night. I touched the necklace where it laid just above my breasts.

_Was he looking at this...?_

_I should have asked... Didn't I leave a note to self about asking more questions?_

_Well I failed that one miserably._

A shaky laugh escaped my lips as I lowered my head and closed my eyes.

"_**I'll come back for you one day, and then no one will hurt you anymore..."**_

I heard those words echo through my mind, but this time, the voice wasn't mine.

It was Hiei's.


	3. Breakfast

**Chapter 2: Breakfast**

I must have fallen asleep although I don't remember even climbing into bed again. Actually I was certain I had fallen asleep again because I was having that same nightmare, that same death scene again. It was the same blood, and fear and death that haunted me nearly every night; and the pain, the terrible searing pain from those claws ripping into my flesh.

Yes, I knew I had fallen asleep again because I woke up screaming, like I did every night I had this dream, but this time someone answered my pain.

"Yuzuki!" There was banging at my door, I cringed, still trying to wake from the dream. "Yuzuki-san! Open the door!"

I whimpered and pulled myself into a ball into the corner of the bed, my arms hugging my legs tightly to my chest; I was shaking.

"Yuzuki!" The voice continued, but it must have become clear to whoever it was that I wasn't going to answer and the next thing I knew the door to my room burst open.

I shrieked and leapt to my feet on my own bed where blankets tangled around my legs and sent me spilling off the bed and onto the floor with a heavy thud. My shoulder hit the hardwood floors with a crack and pain laced down arm and into my fingers, but it did nothing to dull the still burning pain on my back.

"Yuzuki!" A concerned voice called as figures entered my room. Warm fingers wrapped gently around my arm and tried to help me sit up. My fingers met someone's chest and I leaned my head against the warm comfort it brought.

"Everything's alright now. It was just a dream." The same voice as before murmured soothingly. Kurama, the rational part of my mind told me. It was Kurama who was holding me.

"Is she alright? What do you think happened?" Another voice questioned, but I couldn't answer, I just tried to quell the fear that was still driving me.

Everyone stilled as a light clink of metal hitting wood caught my attention before I felt someone kneel behind me. I stiffened as I considered pulling away from the unknown presence, but then the smell of a wood burning fire hit my nose. It was instantly soothing and kept me from flinching when tentatively probing fingers touched my back.

The person behind me was so close that I could even make out hints of spices under the heady scent of fire coming off of him. He hissed a sound that should have had me cringing but I just couldn't summon up the need to move away.

"Did you see these Kurama?" The man behind me asked. Hiei, it was Hiei who was touching my back. It was Hiei's scent that had calmed me so easily. "She shouldn't have survived injuries like these."

Kurama stiffened under my cheek as he leaned over me to gaze down my back. "Dear god. I knew there had been an accident with her family and rumors that she had died, but when I saw she was alive I didn't think anything of the rumors again. Injuries like these could explain all of her memory loss."

"You think she was attacked by something?" A voice near the door asked, I wasn't sure which one.

"No, I know she was attacked. I just wasn't aware of the damage she sustained."

Hiei's fingers ran over the scars that I knew were on my back. The burning ache intensified and I cringed away from his touched as I squeezed my eyes shut against the pain; he left me go.

"There's something not right about those scars. I could feel heat radiating from them as if they were still fresh and healing. You claimed it had been years since you heard of her death, these should be the same age then but they don't feel like it."

Kurama shifted again and the rough material of his shirt rubbed against my nipples. That was when I realized that I was definitely not wearing a shirt.

I flushed a beet red color as I cleared my throat. "Uh... Kurama...?" I murmured.

"Yes Yuzuki?" He turned his attention back to me, shifting his weight which caused his shirt to rub up against sensitive areas again.

"I, uh... I think I need a shirt..." I was trying to be quiet but it was clear from the way everyone in the room froze that they all realized the same thing I did.

"You're quite right." He answered after a long and awkward pause. "Hiei could you possibly hand me the sheet from the bed?"

Hiei stood and turned to the bed and pulled the sheet free from the tangled mess. That is, until he realized it was still mostly tangled around my legs. Letting out an angry grunt he knelt down and began unwinding it from my legs; I yelped when he touched my left calf. His hands stopped as he carefully inspected my calf.

"The injuries on her leg are similar to the ones on her back." He muttered. I assumed to answer the questioning look he was probably receiving from Kurama. Finally he freed my legs from the sheet and dropped it unceremoniously on my back.

Kurama kept me carefully tucked against his chest as to not expose anything inappropriate then reached for the edges of the sheet to tuck them around me before he carefully moved back to stand up.

"We'll be right outside if you need anything." He said as he ushered the other boys out of the room.

I smiled weakly in response, but as the door closed, all I wanted to do was bash my head into the floor. "Stupid, stupid, stupid." I hissed at myself. "Letting them see you so weak like that, it was stupid!"

Grunting I rose to my feet and made my way over to the large closet. I dressed as quickly as I could then made my way into my private bathroom to run a comb through my hair. The blackish purple strands curled haphazardly around my face as I struggled to get them under control.

_Ugh I give up. Ponytail time it is then._

I glared at myself in the mirror as I tied my hair up and away from my face before splashed water onto my face; and nearly squealed in surprise.

_That shite is _cold_!_

Since I wasn't feeling completely comfortable with four strangers in my house I undid my pants and slid a knife belt around my hips so the knife rested lightly against my right hip and then re-buttoned my pants.

_There, virtually invisible... and totally uncomfortable._

Well... It was either be comfortable without the knife or be uncomfortable with it.

Did I really need it? Probably not. Did it make me feel better having it? Oh totally.

The knife stayed.

I opened the door and smacked my nose into the back of the shortest of my new house guests.

_At least it wasn't his chest._

… _Not as if I would have preferred that..._

_You suck at lying._

I rubbed my nose and stepped back. "You could at least warn a girl that you're going to be standing in front of her door like a bloody brick wall."

He narrowed his eyes at me and I was certain he was going to try and say something insult to brush my comment off.

"Oh bugger off..." I muttered as I slipped my way around. "You're such a dodgy blighter."

The look on his face was priceless.

_Oh score one for the home team!_

"What did you just call me...?" He growled at me.

"A dodgy blighter." I paused and realized that my insults might go over certain people's heads. "A shady guy. And before that I told you to bugger off, which means fuck off, or screw off."

_If looks could kill I'd so be dead ten times over by now..._

"Look. I don't need to hear your insults, it's obvious that something about me sets you off your rocker, but I clearly don't need to hear it. I was nice enough to offer you my home while your friends could recoup from whatever gallivanting you did. You don't need to act like an old codger. You try stay out of my way and I will try stay out of yours."

Dumb I know… But at least he left me alone.

I made my way down the stairs to hear whispering in my kitchen. "You know if you plan on talking about me its better if you do it outside of my own home. That way you don't look like a bunch of muppets."

The tallest one, with the hair that was somewhere between brown and orange, stared at me as if I'd grown another head.

_I wonder if I should check for a second head growth. I'll do that later._

"How do we look like Kermit the frog?"

Now it was my turn to stare at him like he was a barmey.

"Who in the bloody hell is Kermit the frog? I said you were a muppet, a dimwit, you barmey."

"I take offence to that!" He balked, and then paused. "What's a barmey...?"

"She means idiot." The one with the black hair answered; Yusuke, I reminded myself. "That's what a barmey is, right? An idiot?"

"Aye, I called him an idiot. Don't you look at me like I'm a nutter! It's not my fault you have no clue as to what I'm saying." I snapped at Kuwabara as I could see him staring at me oddly.

Before he could open his mouth Kurama answered his next question. "Crazy, don't look at her like she's crazy."

"Aye, is it so hard to figure out what I'm saying? It's not like I'm a trollop or something."

Kuwabara opened his mouth again but Yusuke cut him off. "Don't ask, it's an insulting term and I really would rather have you not learn what that means." He turned to me and opened his mouth to say something but his stomach chose to rumble quite loudly; I laughed.

"Hah, hah, hah, oh forgive me. You must be hungry."

Kuwabara and Yusuke's ears perked up, and I mean that almost literally. If they had been dogs their ears would have been perked and their tails wagging; I laughed more when the image of them with dog ears and tails popped into my head.

"Sorry, sorry. Just thought of something funny is all." I snickered as I tried to get myself under control. "Look, if you want to eat you'll have to get it yourself."

I turned around and picked up a metal pail and a wicker basket. "I'm up later than I usually am so I doubt they're in the best of moods, but if you want to eat here you'll have to work for it."

I handed Yusuke the pail and Kuwabara the basket. "You too Kurama and Hiei."

I unlocked and opened the side door that let out into what was basically my yard, although I wasn't sure if you could call it my front yard or my back yard or even my side yard.

After pulling two keys out of my work boots, which I leave outside for a very specific reason, I don't need cow dung in my house; I pulled them on and nodded at the bewildered faces of Yusuke and Kuwabara. "This way."

I led them down the dirt path to a little barn. Pulling the door open for them was a little tough surprisingly but I tried not to let it show.

_Note to Self. Oil barn door hinges._

_Do I have oil? I should probably check that later and get some if I need to._

_New Note to Self: Check workshop supplies._

"Alright. To the end there is another door that lets out into the Chicken yard, where you'll be getting the eggs along with feeding the chickens. In here you will find the milking cow, Annie. Don't forget to feed her as well when you try to milk her. Please don't harass the animals; you won't like the end results." I leaned back against the door with a smirk.

Yusuke and Kuwabara just gaped at me; I laughed.

"You too are hopeless. It's not like the animals are going to attack you or anything. You treat them with respect and they'll treat you with respect." Snatching the pail from Yusuke's hands I made my way over to the cow. Opening the stall I sat the pail down next to Annie and patted her hip lightly. She huffed at me impatiently.

"Sorry I'm late girl. We'll take care of this and then I'll set you out in the field in a moment. Yusuke," I motioned to the stool hanging on the wall next to him. "Grab that and bring it over here.

"Good, now set it here," I indicated the spot near the Annie's udders but far enough away from her back legs, then I sat the pail under her udders. "Grab the nipple like this," I pinched the nipple with my thumb against my hand, "and pull down gently like this," I pulled down and a stream of warm milk sprayed into the bottom of the bucket. "Be gentle about it or she's gonna bite you. Now she'll tell you when she's done and then you're going to grab the pail and stand up slowly. If I'm not here you're going to take the rope on the wall and loop it around her neck to lead her out to the fenced off field to the right of the chicken coop, got it?"

"Uh, yeah sure." He answered slowly.

"Good." I smiled and patted his shoulder then tossed some grain into the bin in front of Annie so she could eat before making my way to the other door, indicating to Kuwabara to follow.

Opening the back door was easier than the front but I probably should oil it as well. That or it just made itself more difficult so I could look like a weak female in front of several tough men, or I assumed they were tough seeing as they appeared to be fine after the beating they had taken the night before. Outside I led my little group to the smaller of the two fenced off fields. Unhooking the gate I let the boys in first before closing it and locking it.

"Okay Kuwabara, open up that door to that coop over there." I indicated the small hen house. "You're going to let the hens out to eat and take the eggs that are sitting in the nests. You're also going to sweep out the coop and then lay down a fresh layer of sawdust from that bin there." I pointed to the locked bin on the back of the hen house. "Here's the key, make sure you lock it after you're done. And don't break the eggs.

"Kurama, there's a pail attached to the feed box on the south side of the fence, if you wouldn't mind throwing out some feed for the chickens while Kuwabara gets the eggs and cleans up that would be fantastic." I add as I hand him the key to the feed.

"And you," I turned to Hiei, "Honestly I dragged you out here because I don't trust you alone in my house. Don't spook my animals." I poked him squarely in the chest as I said this before opening the gate and letting him out first which he went through, but not before he glared viciously at me; I slipped out after him and closed the gate tightly behind me.

"I still have one more animal to take care of then we can go back inside and have breakfast." I stated although I was sure he wasn't going to answer me after that confrontation on the stairs. I went back inside the barn and over to the opposite side while calling over and seeing how Yusuke, and more importantly Annie was holding up, before going over to a half opened stall just as the head of my horse stuck out and whickered at me.

"I know, I know. You're not happy with me for being so late. Well you can blame the new guys for that." I said to my horse as I rubbed his nose and handed him a carrot.

"This is Cody. He's a bit of a handful honestly, but he's only three." I told Hiei as I looked over at the man. "I've had him since he was a colt."

Cody butted his head against my shoulder. Pain zinged through my arm as I tried not to wince. I must have hit it harder than I thought when I fell.

"Yeah, yeah. Let's get you brushed then you can go out into the field for a little while, sound good?" I rubbed his cheek lightly; he huffed.

Hiei was watching me and the horse with a curious expression on his face, but it was too hard to tell what the expression was and Cody was getting impatient so I grabbed the bucket with his cleaning supplies and went into his stall.

Since I groomed him at least daily there really weren't a lot of snarls to work loose and his hooves were relatively clean.

"Well Cody, looks like you're good to go, let me get the halter and I'll take you out to the field." I turned my back on him like I had done a thousand times to reach out of the stall and grab the harness but today he did something I've never seen him do since his training, he bucked.

I was so startled by his bucking that I failed to notice his hoof before it smacked into my injured shoulder. Pain speared my brain and I went down hard on my tailbone. As his body began its descent to the ground came back down I realized I was not far enough away to be safe. Just as I watched his front hooves come down to potentially crack my ribs I was yanked roughly into the arms of one well timed man.

"Hiei!" I gasped as I was spun around while fingers probed my injured shoulder. "I'm fine," I hissed as he found a particularly sore spot.

The look on his face when he met my eyes appeared to be concern, but that couldn't be right.

_Could it?_

Cody bucked again and Hiei moved us out of the way as my horse bolted out of the stall and out the barn.

"Cody!" I cried as I pulled myself free of Hiei's embrace and took off after my horse.

"Yuzuki!" Hiei snapped as he realized I was taking off after the horse, but I didn't listen, didn't even allow myself time to be surprised by the fact that he had actually said my name, and I was really surprised by that. No, I was going after my horse, and no one was going to stop me. He was just a horse, but bloody damn it he was my horse and I raised him from a young colt and I couldn't let him leave.

Cody was fast, all horses were, but he was faster than the average horse, which made catching him difficult, but I knew this land like it was the back of my hand and I knew ways to catch up to him.

I spotted him up ahead and increased my speed to catch him. I got alongside him and knew I only had seconds to do something so I tangled my hand in his mane and leapt, pulling my weight up and onto his back. Pain flared in my arm again as I realized, a little too late, that I had used my bad one. Getting on him was the easy part, getting him to calm down was not so easy.

"Whoa, Cody, whoa..." I murmured as I tried to sooth my unhappy horse and turn him towards home. "Shh... It's okay. Nothing's out here to get you."

"Not out to get him, no. But you, you're hiding that Urameshi and his gang aren't ya little missy?" A creature stepped out from behind a tree followed closely by several more. They were demons, which surprised me because I've almost never had demon visitors in my little area, but here they were and it wasn't just one or two, it was five or six.

Cody whinnied under me and pawed the earth as he shuffled side to side.

"I'd don't know what you're talking about." I answered as I untangled one hand from Cody's mane and reached for the hilt of the knife hidden under my shirt. "But you're trespassing so if you don't mind leaving we won't have any problems."

The demon snickered and nodded at his friends. "And what are you going to if we decide we don't want to leave?"

_Well that did not go as I wanted it to..._

I swore under my breath before flicking my only weapon into the throat of one of the groupies. "Go Cody!" I snapped as I kicked my heels into Cody's flanks.

He reared up, and I clung to him as desperately as I could, my shoulder flaring with pain, before he turned around, bucked his hindquarters into the chest of the closest demon, and took off at a canter.

"So I'm pretty sure that my houseguests have some crazed fans... hey, it happens, I mean look at those stars in the human world that died because a fan was so crazed they thought it was okay to kill them." I laughed uncomfortably. "So... What do I do now?"

I slowed Cody down since I felt I was a safe distance away from the demons I had left behind in the woods. He fidgeted under me, ears swiveling around to listen for any sounds that weren't the usual.

I sighed and sat up, trying to release the tightness in my muscles and alleviate the burning in my shoulder as I assessed the situation.

"Well..." I mumbled as I looked around. "I doubt my house guests know where I am or even that they have... friends... looking for them. I could go back to the house and warn them, but run the chance of running into those demons again without a weapon since last I checked my knife was still stuck in one of their necks. Or I could circle back the long way and run the risk of not getting back in time to warn them... and probably lose my animals."

_Clearly you're not worried about their safety._

_No, I need to eat; I'm worried about my animals._

I huffed at myself as I sat there trying to decide what to do next when a body slammed full force into mine, knocking me off my horse and sending me flying into the ground where I landed, bounced once then skidded like a ragdoll; Cody reared and took off.

"You little bitch!" It was the demon who had done the talking earlier. "You killed my friend."

"You scared my horse" I answered as I staggered to my feet. "I think we're even."

His hand snapped out and smacked me hard in the face. My neck snapped to the side and stars exploded in my vision; this wasn't going to end well.

_Obviously he's never heard of sarcasm._

I stumbled back a step from the hit, then snapped out and caught him in the ribs; he yelled.

_Well now, thank you Cody, I think his ribs are broken._

"You bitch!" He bellowed.

"You really need to expand your vocabulary." I responded only to get hit again; this time I went down. I swept out with my legs and knocked him over as I rolled to get back up.

_Oh man... when was the last time I actually fought someone? Clearly I suck at this._

His friends were coming into the clearing, one less lucky me, but they were definitely carrying my knife and there were still more of them than there was of me.

"I'm going to enjoy cutting into you with your own knife, bitch." The first demon snapped as he started to get up.

I huffed a laugh before I spat in his face and kicked him in the ribs "Bugger off you bloody wanker."

He was furious, I probably should have thought that one through before I did it, and then he threw me into a tree. My head cracked hard enough into the trunk that I could feel the tree shaking as black spots tried to fill up my vision before I bounced off and slid down the trunk, one leg caught underneath me with the other stretched out in front.

_Okay so I should probably remember that I have a smart mouth._

_Note to self, place filter between brain and mouth._

I groaned as I tried to sit up but I had taken too long and the demon's hand connected with my face again, banging my head back into the tree once more.

"This could have been a lot easier for you if you had just told us where they were. I would have killed you quickly, but now you're going to suffer bitch."

"Truly you still have yet to expound upon the absurdity of your diction. You should try other insults. Trollop is a nice one, or minger, or how about bink? They're all good words to use to insult -" He cut me off by slapping me again. My head swam, it was hard to focus on his face and he was only inches away. I could feel a sticky sensation on my face and the back of my head. "Bollocks... You are a bloody duffer."

"And you're going to be one dead bitch." He tugged me to my feet then slammed me into the tree trunk hard enough that my body bounced off of it by several inches before I landed on the ground in more or less of a heap; I gasped in pain.

_This manky muppet is going to kill you. Why didn't you just hand over those boys? It's not like you owe them anything._

My mind was right, why did I protect them? I didn't owe them anything, I didn't even know them, but I couldn't just let these monsters have them. What kind of person would that make me?

_I'm better than that._

Sharp pain brought me out of my stupor as pressure turned into a harsh cold wave of pain in my thigh. My muscle convulsed and excruciatingly blinding pain shot up to my spine, leaving the rest of my body in this cold burning agony; I screamed. Tears blurred what little of my vision was left, as my leg kicked out on reaction to the knife still stuck in it. My heel caught the edge of his ankle, causing him to fall to the side. With his hand still on the hilt of my knife the blade twisted slightly before it was yanked out of my leg; I whimpered.

"Yuzuki!" Someone called out.

Within seconds of the person's voice there were several cries of anger, scuffling, and the thick sound of a blade slicing through flesh. It was over in probably fifteen seconds but time seemed off with a concussion.

"Yuzuki..." The same voice murmured as a blurry figured moved closer.

I lamented incoherently as I scrambled to pull my knife free from the hands of the dead demon next to me. With trembling fingers I held my knife up to try and thwart off the newcomer.

"Shh... It's okay." The voice caressed as it slowed its movement. "You're safe now."

The person knelt down and red eyes finally came into my view.

"Hiei..." I moaned as I exhaled weakly.

Gentle fingers probed my leg causing me to protest feebly, but the scent I now associated with him drifted over me and I sighed; my muscles relaxing.

"It's not as bad as I thought." He muttered under his breath.

Trees rustled to my right and my body tensed as Hiei instantly left my side.

"Whoa relax man! We were just following you." A familiar snapped. "You took off like a bat outta hell when that horse came back, what's with you?"

Hiei didn't answer, but shuffling directly behind me had me making a distressed sound as I tried to move my aching body.

"It's alright Yuzuki-san..." It was Kurama's voice from behind me as his red hair moved into my blurred vision. He stopped and looked over the scene around me, I wasn't sure what he was seeing but I was certain there were a few dead bodies strewn about. He kneeled in front of me, moving into my line of vision where he too looked me over. He stood up and his hands slid gently around my body to pick me up as he tried not to jostle me more than was needed. "Let's get you home."

He lifted me easily; I knew he would as I did not weigh very much. It staggered him slightly as I'm sure he thought I would weigh at least forty five kilograms and clearly I didn't.

"Dude Kurama you can't carry one female?" It was Yusuke's voice, or at least I thought it was Yusuke's.

"She's much lighter than I was anticipating." Kurama answered as he corrected how he was carrying me then walked past the group.

"I guess breakfast is out of the questioned." I mumbled, as I stumbled over my words.

"I guess so." He chuckled.

It was a soothing sound, but not as soothing as that wood smoke and cinnamon scent that belonged to the man who probably saved my life.


	4. Genetic History

**Chapter 3: Genetic History**

I was certain that Kurama was going to have a hard time opening the door to my home while still holding onto me, but obviously I was wrong. He shifted my non-existent weight onto one arm and popped the door open easily before stepping inside, taking off his shoes, and carrying me directly upstairs and into my own room.

"Where would you like me to put you?"

"The bathroom." I answered my voice rough as I tried to suck in as little air as possible since I was sure I had a cracked rib or three.

He pushed the door opened with his foot and sat me down gently on the closed lid of the toilet. "Can I help you with anything?"

"I uh..." I flushed as I tried not to think too much about that statement. "No I should be fine."

He watched me for a moment before he nodded. "Well if you need anything just call, I'll be within hearing distance."

"Thanks..." I muttered as I watched him close the door behind his retreating back. Carefully I bent at the hips to avoid use of my ribs to undo my shoes. The moment I had both shoes off I heaved a heavy sigh of relief as I sat back up.

_See? That wasn't so hard. _

_Yeah Right…_

My breath hitched from the pain but I struggled out of my clothing anyway and flipped the shower on. When the water was warm enough I slid under its heated spray and winced as it hit the back of my head. I carefully reached back and fingered the large bump on my head.

"This sucks..." I grumbled as I carefully rubbed my hair to work the dried blood out of without poking at the knot on my head more than I needed to.

_Ugh... this is making me nauseous... _

I shut the shower off quickly as I could and still feel remotely clean then stepped out and snatched a towel off the bar near the shower to towel off.

A thump coming from my bedroom had me snapping my head around quickly to face the door; which I regretted instantly. Huffing, I wrapped the towel around me as tightly as I could and yanked the door open only to find Hiei examining my necklace.

"What are you doing?" I snapped as I stormed over to snatch the necklace out of his hands. He pulled away faster than I could react, though I was also slower than I normally was.

"What is this?" Hiei questioned as he glowered at it.

"It's a necklace. Are you honestly that bloody blind that you have to ask me what a necklace is?"

His attention snapped to my face as he glared viciously at me; I stepped back and wobbled slightly. His face softened. Well not really softened but the glare was not nearly as angry as it was when it was first directed at me.

"Let me rephrase." He gritted out as if he was trying to be nice. "Where did you get this necklace?" He indicated the moonstone he was holding.

"I don't remember." I answered quietly as I tried to resist the urge to snatch it out of his hand again. It was making me nervous not having the necklace with me. "I've had it for at least the past three years, but it was here when... after the day I woke up and couldn't remember anymore... Please, can I just... can I have it back now?"

I reached out and grasped for the necklace, my fingers brushing over his and the stone at the same time. Electricity zinged through my body as I sucked in a quick breath. Fuzzy images flashed through my mind of a boy, the same boy that made me that promise, and the necklace. It felt as if my mind was being seared into as the images of things I couldn't remember rushed through like a slideshow on speed. My head hurt to the point where I thought it was going to explode. They just kept repeating over and over until one image very nearly permanently burned into my brain. Red eyes, the same red eyes that were staring at me physically were staring at me again inside my head and a voice so familiar and yet so new repeating words I had been telling myself for the last three years.

"_**I'll come back for you one day, and then no one will hurt you anymore..."**_

And then it stopped. I sucked in a pained breath as I finally blinked and felt tears slide down my cheeks. I felt nauseous, dizzy, and my brain hurt along with the rest of my body but I suddenly realized something.

"It was you..." I murmured as I let my gaze flicker between our fingers against the stone attached to the simple gold chain and his face. "It's always been you, hasn't it?"

His lips pinched into a thin line, as whatever emotion his eyes had been betraying vanished and turned to something cold and hard making his eyes appear to be solid rubies. He pulled his hand away from mine as it had triggered something I didn't know I even knew and the moment the connection was lost an involuntary pained noise escaped my lips as my knees buckled.

He caught me before I hit the floor and though I was certain he hadn't actually meant to, that it had been nearly instinctual he still did it. Yet the moment his arms encircled my ribs I yelped in pain as he compressed the damaged ribs and pain speared into my mind. As I struggled to get free so as to get his arms off my ribs my towel decided to loosen slide down to my waist.

I panicked, and as I tried to snatch the towel that was falling and not reveal anything my feet slid out from under me on the hardwood that was slick from the water that dripped from my wet hair. I instantly went to grab for Hiei but instead of keeping my feet I slipped more, smashing into his legs and pulling him with me as I went down. He braced himself as my tailbone smacked into the floor with a loud thud but he kept my head from smacking heavily into the hardwood.

For a long moment we did nothing except lay there. His hand still firmly holding my head to his shoulder with the rest of his weight pressed down heavily onto one side as his other arm was use to prop most of his weight off of me. He was utterly still; the only thing giving him away was the beating of his heart which I could feel against my skin. My fingers were still tightly clenched in his shirt, so much so that my knuckles were turning white, and my legs were tangled with his and the sodden towel.

"Yuzuki?" Yusuke's voice questioned from the other side of the door. "Are you alright?"

I froze under Hiei's body. "I'm fine." I gritted out.

"Do you need any help? Should I come in there?" The door knob twisted and Hiei stiffened against me.

"No!" I nearly shouted in panic. "I'm - I'm fine. I'm just... changing. Please, **don't** come in here. I'm not decent."

_Clearly. You _are_ pinned under a man completely naked._

I stopped at that thought and became excessively aware of how intimate the full body length contact between Hiei and I really was. His breath moved his chest against mine, his hips were flush with mine and though he wasn't hard from the contact I was becoming more and more aware of the fact that my intimate parts were fully pressed into his.

_If he was naked all you would have to do is hook your legs on his hips and..._

_Oh my god I did _not_ just think that!_

Heat rushed into my face as I suddenly wanted to do nothing more than to crawl into a hole somewhere and be forgotten about for several hours.

_...Days..._

_Months don't lie._

_Shut up._

Yusuke was silent for a while that I nearly forgot he was there, that is until he answered. "Okay..." He answered shakily, as if he just realized what he had almost walked in on.

_Oh he had no idea..._

"If you need any help just yell, we'll hear you downstairs."

_That was not a comforting thought..._

His footsteps retreated from my door and I heaved a large sigh; and then was re-aware of how intimate the contact between Hiei and I really was as my breasts rubbed against his chest as I sighed.

"Hiei..." I whispered, mostly because I didn't want my chest moving against his anymore than it had to. "You're heavy."

He looked down at me then at my bare chest which was still crushed against his; fortunate for me I guess. Realization hit him quickly and he nearly flew off of me and across the room to the window.

I snatched the towel and quickly covered myself as I sat up, trying to figure out why I was both relieved and saddened by the loss of contact. He shifted his weight, one foot on the windowsill; I looked up into his face. His mouth opened, and then shut quickly before he turned and slipped out of the window I hadn't realized was open.

_Well at least it explains how he got into my room. It was obvious that Yusuke didn't know he was in here. Did he seriously just sneak into my room to look at my necklace?_

I huffed, winced at pain from the movement of my probably freshly bruised ribs; it was not one of my happier days. Groaning, I slipped my necklace over my head before I slowly stood and went over to my closet where I found something loose, and comfortable to wear. Moving the clothing to my bed I nabbed some wraps from my bathroom so I could wrap up my thigh which had started bleeding again when Hiei fell on top of me. Once my wound was tended to I dressed quickly and puffed up my cheeks as I assessed myself. My ribs hurt, my thigh hurt, my head hurt, all in all I hurt and it wasn't even noon yet from the sun outside my window. I dropped my towel on the floor and swept up the water and blood that had dripped from my leg when I was sure I had gotten most of it I picked it up and dropped it in the sink before leaving my bedroom, limping slightly as I did.

_This is going to be a very long day._

The sounds of someone banging around in my kitchen met my ears as I made my way to the top of the stairs. I wobbled slightly and eyed the stairs as if they were a new enemy. Equilibrium was not my friend right now.

_Suck it up._ I told myself as I gripped the railing tightly in one hand and made myself take the stairs slowly to the first floor. I passively noted the mess on my couch but didn't have enough energy to find out who had left it and instead made my way into the kitchen where I saw Kurama opening cupboards and thoroughly inspecting the items inside before closing them and moving on to another one.

"Ah Yuzuki-san," he said as he noticed me enter my kitchen. "How are you feeling?"

"Better." I lied as I carefully slid myself into one of my white kitchen chairs. "What are you doing?"

Kurama blinked then followed where I was staring to the cupboard he had opened. He smiled slightly as he closed it again. "I thought I could make you something to eat when you came out of your room so I've been learning where you store all your kitchen items. Did you know that someone left a basket of food on your porch this morning?"

I cocked my head to one side. "Has it been a week already? I must have forgotten."

At the odd look from Kurama I flushed; or flushed more as it felt like my cheeks were still very red from the incident earlier. In fact, my whole face still felt very hot. "Once a week I get a basket of food for the week: fresh fruit, vegetables and a meat maybe some cheese or other items, but usually fruit, vegetable and meat. I still haven't figured out who does it. Which reminds me, how did you and your group get here anyway?"

Kurama looked at me, confusion clear on his face. "Someone just leaves you food once a week on your door? And what do you mean how did we get here? We walked here."

"Yes, once a week they leave me food." I answered before standing up slowly and making my way over to the basket to see what I given this week. "And I mean exactly what I asked. You do realize that my home isn't in the Ningenkai."

"This can't be the Makai." Kurama answered.

I paused and considered lying but I'm sure he would have figured it out. "No..." I answered slowly. "I'm sure this can't be the Makai either, but it's certainly not the Ningenkai."

Kurama leaned against the counter and looked at me. "And this also can't be the Reikai as I've been there personally."

I froze at that and looked at him. "No..." I finally answered. "This isn't the Reikai..."

"Then what is it?"

"Well... I've been calling it the Border World."

"The... Border world...?"

I nodded and then regretted the action but tried not to let that show. "Yes. Have you not noticed that the colors are off here? Everything is much brighter than in the human world and there are no animals, outside of the ones that I have here."

He stared at me for a long time. "Then how did we get here."

"Easy, you walked." I answered with a smug grin; he laughed. "Honestly I don't know. I don't know how people come here. I mean I've had visitors before. Well, not really visitors, but people who get lost and end up here. Even after the incident today I would still say that you cannot just decide to find this place it's a bit of an accident. You came here because you were looking for a safe place to stay. Maybe that's why you came here really, but I could be wrong. I think your little friends I ran into earlier were only here because they tracked you by scent, not because they were actively looking for this place."

He was quiet for a while so I went about putting away the items that I had been given for the week to keep myself busy as I was starting to feel very light headed.

"There are really no other animals here outside of the ones you have on your farm?"

I looked at him and crossed my arms over my chest. "Do you really think I would take meat from a person I have never met and have no clue as to what type of meat it is if I could go out and kill my own animal, do you?"

He laughed and usually I liked his laugh, but right now the sound made my head throb. "I guess you're right." He paused as he thought over what I had said. "You've never met the person who brings you food?"

I shook my head and tried to cover the pained noise that made it self apparent; I failed if the look on his face means anything. "No, I've never met them. I have communicated with them via letters. I usually leave the basket on the porch the night after getting the food and they pick it back up. So I'll usually get a response from them the next week. It's how I've gone to the Ningenkai a few times. They even give me money for spending if I do go over there. I mean I do have to get new clothing every once in a while."

Kurama watched me carefully. "Are you sure you're feeling alright?"

"I'm just tired. Once I heal I'll be fine."

He reached over and gently examined the back of my head; I winced in pain. "Is it just me or does this bump seem smaller than it was earlier today?"

"Is it?" I asked as I reached back and touched it. It did feel smaller and less tender than before. Touching it didn't make me nauseous like it did in the shower. "I don't know, maybe."

He carefully pulled down the back of my collar to examine my shoulder. It was bruised, but the bruise looked as if it were old and had several days to heal. When his eyes met mine I could see the confusion and the questions he wanted to ask. Or maybe it was accusations he wanted to make.

I shrugged his hands off of me as I took a step back and looked away from him. I closed my eyes and hugged myself; I didn't need to be accused of something.

"Oh Yuzuki..." He murmured quietly. "I don't think there's something wrong with you, I was just surprised that you healed so quickly, that's all. I didn't expect you to heal this quickly. You're healing even faster than me or Hiei and we're demons, it just caught me off guard. I'm sorry to make you think I thought ill of you."

I just twitched my head slightly in acknowledgement as I didn't really want to nod right now. "I think I'm just going to skip out of food right now..." I muttered as I stepped away from the counter. "I'm not really feeling well anyway."

I didn't need to look at Kurama to know concerned was etched into his face; I just tried to make my way out of my kitchen. I stumbled as I tried to step around my kitchen table and reached out for the doorframe that apparently wasn't where I thought it was so instead my hand met nothing but air as I began to fall face first to the floor.

"Yuzuki-san!" Kurama called as I felt his arms wrap around my waist and the scent of roses hit my nose

_Roses are nice..._ I thought just before my legs gave out and my world went dark.

I woke up, sucking in a large gasping breath as if I was breaking through the surface of a body of water just before my lungs exploded from the lack of oxygen. Panting like an oxygen deprived swimmer I gazed around only to realize I was in my bedroom again.

_Wasn't I just downstairs...?_

I sat up quickly and groaned as the world swam before me. As I pushed back the blankets I could feel the bed was vibrating only to realize that I was shaking and that was what was causing the bed to vibrate. I assessed my situation and tried to remember what the last thing I was doing happened to be.

"I was falling I think." I muttered to myself as carefully got to my feet and made my way into my bathroom. Turning on the faucet I leaned my hands against the counter and looked at myself in the mirror.

_Good lord I look like I'm bloody dying._

My skin had a sickly pale attribute to it and there were thick purple circles under my eyes. "That's just not possible. I can't remember ever getting sick, and I'm pretty sure that to look like this I would have to have been sick for several days first."

I groaned then stuck my hands under the running water and nearly cried out in surprise. It was cold! Like, frigid tundra cold water, not the cold that usually comes out of my faucet. Bracing myself I stuck my hands back under the arctic water and filled them up to splash onto my face.

_Holy blood hell! If that doesn't wake you up nothing will._

Water ran down my neck as I shut off the faucet and patted my face dry. I was awake, not happily awake, but my adrenaline from the frigid water had woken me up more than that sludge from the Ningenkai they call coffee ever did.

I went to my bedroom door and pulled it open only to be blinded by the late afternoon sun streaming into my west facing house. Letting my eyes adjust I took the stairs carefully down to my main floor and looked around.

_Did my house guests leave?_ I wondered as I didn't hear any male voices from any location in my home and there was no mess to be found. So I wandered through my kitchen and opened the side door to look out at my barn. "I should probably bring the animals in." I muttered aloud.

"No need." Kurama answered as he came around the side of the house. "They've all been taken care of for the night." He smiled at me as he took off his shoes by the door.

I smiled weakly in response. "Thank you."

"It's the least we could do. How are you feeling?" He asked as he examined my face.

"Well enough I guess." I answered as I moved aside to let him in. I could see Yusuke and Kuwabara shutting the barn door.

Cool fingers touched my forehead and cheeks gently. "It seems that you have a fever."

"Fever?" I echoed as I looked at him oddly.

"You probably just have a cold. Sit down and I'll see if I can make you something to eat."

"Cold...?" I repeated again as I sat down. "Honestly I've never been sick so I have no clue what you're talking about."

"Never been sick?" He asked as he folded his arms over his chest as he examined me again.

"No. At least not the past three years that I can remember. I wouldn't even know where to go if I did get sick."

Kurama mulled over what I had said to him before he turned away and rummaged through the small collection of food I had. "Well if it is a cold some soup and going back to bed will be fine so need to worry."

"If you say so..." I answered as I sat there watching someone else use my little kitchen.

_If they plan on staying I'll have to find out about expanding this kitchen. Heck, even the whole house really._

At that thought my mind went back to the blank wall next to the stairs. Something about that had always felt off to me. Like there should have something else there. A door maybe, or a room, or a hallway. I stopped suddenly as I thought of a hallway and a vague image of one fit itself into place in the odd blank spot in the wall that shouldn't be there.

"A hallway..." I murmured as I stood up and went to the side door to yank it open.

"What?" Kurama asked as he turned away from whatever he was doing. "Yuzuki, what are you doing?"

"It's a hallway!" I answered as I opened the little door to my shed and pulled out a mallet. "It's a hallway, Kurama. Someone covered up a hallway."

I ran back into the house and past Kurama into the living room where I face the oddly placed wall. I lifted the heavy mallet over my head and threw all of my weight behind it as I slammed it into the drywall.

"Yuzuki?" Yusuke's voice caught my attention as the mallet sunk easily into the drywall. "What in the world do you think you're doing?"

"It's a hallway!" I snapped as I pulled the mallet free and slammed it into the wall again. "There's a hallway behind this wall! Someone covered it up!"

"She's delirious, why would anyone randomly cover up a hallway in her house?" Yusuke asked Kurama as he came out of the kitchen. I noted the lack of answer from the red head.

I was sweating as I tried to tug the mallet free again. My body shook violently as I felt the last of my energy being sucked from me. I tugged harder, nearly toppled over as the mallet came free and glared at the wall as I tried to swing the mallet again. A hand caught my arm and pulled the mallet easily from my weak fingers.

I turned my head to snap at the person who had taken the mallet from my only to be surprised by Hiei investigating the hole I made. "Hiei?!" I gasped in confusion.

"There seems to be something back here." He stated, but not to me. "She might be right. Didn't you say that she had a family before whatever accident took her memories away?"

Kurama nodded as he walked over to investigate as well. "She did, and I thought the house looked peculiar but I wasn't sure. It's possible someone actually did come in here and cover up what's ever behind this wall. May be stored things back here that belonged to her parents or sister. I would bet it's the same person who makes sure she has enough to eat every week."

Hiei stepped back and looked at the wall while sparing a glance for Kurama, who moved aside, before slamming the mallet deeply into the drywall. As he pulled back a large chunk came with him and I finally got to see what they were talking about.

"It's a hallway..." I repeated again. "Why would anyone cover up a hallway in my own house? Why hide things from me?" With renewed energy I ran over to begin to pull chunks of the drywall away until there was a big enough hold for me to fit through and slipped through before anyone could stop me. I stood in the dim hallway, lit only by the light that filtered in through the living room, and let my eyes adjust to the gloom. I noticed a light switch on the wall and reach over to see if it actually worked. It did surprisingly, and the light in the middle of the hallway flickered on. With the new light I spotted three doors and went to open each one in turn as the boys opened up the hallway more.

The first was a bathroom complete with sink, toilet and shower. A thin layer of dirt covered everything, but it was nice to know there was another bathroom downstairs; I left the door open. Two more doors were left, one next to the bathroom and one that stood alone on the opposite side. I wavered for a moment as I tried to decide which I wanted to open then stepped across the hall to the door that stood alone. I tried the handle and realized it wouldn't turn so I threw my weight into the door and rebounded.

"God damn being far too light... The one time my bloody weight becomes a major issue it has to be now." I snapped as I tried to just lean my weight into the door.

"You're pathetic." Hiei growled as he moved me aside and slammed into the door into the wall behind it.

I shimmied past him to stand just inside the room and look around. It was a play room, or at least that's what I assumed. There were toys everywhere with a table in the center of the room and an easel off to one side next to a boarded up window. I slowly made my way into the room and over to the table, carefully avoiding touching any of the toys so as to not disturb the room, and spotted a half-finished drawing sitting on the table with crayons strewn about. On the easel was another half-finished art piece though this one appeared to be a painting of the landscape outside.

"It's like time stopped for this room..." I murmured as I touched the drawing on the table and got a vague image of a small child sitting at the table and drawing. I blinked as tears burned in my eyes.

_You're crying._

_It's just the dust. Why would I cry over people I don't know?_

_Because you did know them._

I growled to myself as I stomped my way out of the room, purposefully kicking some of the toys out of my way where I had been careful with them the first time through. I pushed my way past where Hiei and the boys stood watching me while storming over to the other door and trying the handle.

"Bloody hell!" I snapped as I realized the door wasn't going to open. "It's like the bloody wanker is trying to piss me off. Why can't the god damn bloody door just open?!" I slammed my hand into the door only to watch as the thing bowed around my hand and a large break form out in either direction from my hand.

"Holy hell..." I murmured as I carefully pulled my hand away and inspected the crack; the men were eerily silent behind me. I tried the door again only to have it still not want to open.

"Oh you have got to be joking! The bloody door nearly breaks in half and it still won't open?" I yelled at the door as I gestured at the knob. A stream of grayish red mist came out of my palm and hit the door knob, melting it off the door; I yelped and jumped away as the door opened slowly.

Still staring at the liquid metal on the floor I gingerly made my way around it and into the room; it was an office. A large blocked off window took up nearly one whole wall on its own with a desk set at a diagonal to look out it. There was a couch on the wall opposite the desk and a large bookshelf next to it. Behind the desk was a pair of large double doors that would probably lead to a closet if I went to open them. I made my way over to the desk and stopped; there were pictures. Not just any pictures but family pictures. I picked one up and wiped the dust away to reveal a family of four. I gazed at the three unfamiliar faces as images from that nightmare flashed in my mind.

"One boy... Two girls... Just like the dream..." This time they weren't just fuzzy images of bodies but more distinct figures with hair that matched the hair of the people in the image. Then there was the other girl, the girl that could have only been me at a younger age. My hands trembled as I held the picture, tears burned in my eyes and my throat grew thick; I didn't remember these people. Their faces were unfamiliar, I didn't know their names or how old they were in the picture, but I did know one thing: I killed them. I may not have done it with my own hands but it was clear to me that it was my fault they died.

"It's all my fault..." I murmured as my body shook and my vision blurred with unshed tears. "I killed them. I don't even remember them, but I killed them."

"No Yuzuki..." Kurama's soft voice entered my thoughts. "You didn't kill them, it was an accident." Soft fingers took the picture from my grip and set it back on the desk as a cool hand touched my cheek. "It was never your fault."

"They died because I was born." I answered him with words I knew to be true. In the very core of my being I know that my birth had caused their death.

Kurama didn't say anything, just brushed my hair from my face.

I closed my eyes as tears slipped from behind my lashes to slide down my cheeks. The images of the now distinct figures from my nightmares flashed in my mind, and a voice that I had never heard before entered my mind.

_Yes... Suffer like I have suffered for thousands of years. Remember the innocent people you killed by being alive. You will suffer, slowly and painfully until you beg for the sweet release of death, but I won't give it to you. Not yet, not until you have nothing left like I have nothing left. I'm coming for you my beautifully disgusting creature, and I will kill everyone around you._

My eyes snapped open with the terror that I felt with every fiber of my being. I gripped Kurama's shirt and stared up at him with wide eyes. "He's coming."

"Who's coming, Yuzuki?" He asked as he checked to see if I had a fever.

I slapped his hand away from my forehead. "He's coming and he's going to kill everyone. You need to leave, you can't be here. You-" I stopped abruptly as pain seared its way into my brain as I felt claws rake across my back. I screamed, or at least I screamed in my head before the pain was so intense that I blacked out.

I woke up in the middle of the night if the moonlight streaming into my room was any indication. Dried sweat plastered my hair to my head as I looked around my darkened room.

_Bloody hell... I need to stop passing out. I don't need to show any weakness to the boys._

_The boys or Hiei?_

I growled at myself as I tried to remember the last thing that happened. _I was downstairs in that office we found... And then..._

_I passed out._

_Note to Self. Try not to pass out multiple times in front of near strangers._

I huffed angrily as I became aware of voices outside my room.

"This was a concern of the procedure she wanted to undertake." It was a female's voice that I didn't recognize.

"You're telling me she purposefully had her memories removed? How much?"

"All of it..." The female responded after a long pause.

"You're telling me that not only did she have her memories removed but she had **all** of them removed. And Koenma **allowed** that?!"

"Calm down Kurama." The female voice soothed. "Yes Koenma agreed only because he thought it might stop that... thing from coming back."

"What thing?" Kurama asked in a dark tone.

"Look I don't know the details I just bring her food and-"

"You're the one that brings her food?" Kurama asked in surprise, cutting off the girl.

"Well yes, I can't just let her starve out here on this forgotten world."

"Forgotten...World...?"

The girl is quiet for a while before answering. "I can't get into it, it's something you should probably ask Koenma. But what's happening to her, the things you told me she's done and how sick she looks, that's something we were worried about."

"What do you mean 'something we were worried about'?"

"Yuzuki's... unique. When she came in she didn't exhibit any... extraordinary abilities, but that didn't mean she didn't have any given her genetic history."

"Genetic history?"

The girl ignored him and continued. "There was a concern that the removal of such a large portion of memories would basically reset her system and she might start exhibiting more... abilities. Which would be fine, except her genetic history gives her... basically a chaos theory effect."

"You do realize she's awake and has been listening to you two arguing over useless information for a while now." It was Hiei.

Everyone was quiet before the door opened slowly, causing me to squint against the light pouring in from the hallway, and revealed Kurama, Hiei and a girl with aqua colored hair.

_Okay _that_ cannot be natural._

_Shut up, who am I to talk? I have purple hair and I've never dyed it._

"Hello Yuzuki, my name is Botan." The girl said with a smile as she entered the room. "How are you feeling?"

"Like I've gone to hell in a hand basket." I croaked before I cleared my throat. "So you're the person who's been leaving me food for the past three years."

She flushed, or at least I thought she did. "Yes, I'm the one that's been giving you food on a weekly basis. If I had known you had visitors I would have given you more. These four eat quite a lot; especially Yusuke and Kuwabara."

"Well...Nice to meet you, I guess."

She smiled. "Nice to meet you too. I wish it were under better circumstances." She perched lightly at the foot of my bed. "Yuzuki," she started after a long pause. "I have to ask you. What do you remember of your family's... accident?"


	5. Mental Confusion

**Chapter 4: Mental Confusion**

"I don't remember anything," I lied.

Botan looked at me skeptically. "Nothing at all? Not even after finding those rooms?"

"Nothing." I answered again as I willed her to believe me; Kurama wasn't.

"Maybe she doesn't realize she remembers." He said as he moved over into the room next to Botan. "But I think she remembers subconsciously."

"What do you mean?" Botan asked as she turned her attention to the red head.

"She was having a nightmare early this morning that seemed to revolve around the scars on her back."

"Twice." Hiei added; everyone looked at him.

"Twice?" Kurama echoed.

Hiei glared. I don't think me meant to say anything. "Twice. I could hear her screaming before we got to this house."

"I didn't hear anything on our way here." Kurama mulled.

"That's because you're in a human body, fox. You don't have demon hearing." Hiei snapped.

"And she did tell us that she 'killed them' when she saw the picture in that office." Kurama said as he turned his attention back to Botan.

"She is right here." I muttered under my breath.

"Sorry Yuzuki." Kurama answered embarrassed. "We don't mean to talk about you as if you weren't here."

"Well I don't remember anything. I don't even recognize their faces. I have no idea who they are or why their stuff is in my house. I don't know what kind of answer you're looking for but that's all I can offer you." I lied again.

Botan and Kurama exchanged a look before Botan stood. "That's alright. I didn't mean to pry. In the morning I would like to take you to get checked out for whatever seems to be ailing you, if that's alright."

"Yeah, sure, whatever makes you happy." I muttered.

"Good, then I'll see you in the morning." Botan left with Kurama following after.

Hiei stood there for a long moment with an all too knowing look on his face before he finally turned and left.

_He knows you're lying._

_Everyone knows I'm lying._

_Then why do it?_

I thought about that for a long time before I shrugged and huffed.

_Note to Self. Stop arguing with self as you lose to self._

I shook my head then regretted it when I felt my hair pull away from my skin.

_Well this is just gross._ I thought to myself so as to not be heard from anyone who might be standing outside the door.

_Or window._

Sighing I slipped out of bed and tested to see if I could hold my weight on my feet. When I didn't collapse instantly, I shuffled into the bathroom, not before I snatched my katana from where it was now leaning against a wall.

_Weren't you under my bed?_

I shut the door to my bathroom then rested my body weight against it. If I was being honest with myself I really didn't remember much of anything. The faces in the picture were only vaguely familiar; if someone hadn't told me they were my family I honestly don't think I would have realized that.

I remember saying something, something weird, when I touched that picture. I had heard a voice of a monster in my head and I knew with sudden clarity.

"He's going to kill me..." I whispered out loud. I knew it with every fiber of my being. I knew it like I knew he had been the one to kill those innocent people in my nightmares.

I didn't hear him anymore, but that didn't mean he wasn't still there, in my mind.

_What if you're the monster?_

_Was I?_

_They're dead because of you aren't they?_

Tears welled in my eyes for people I couldn't remember. "It's true... I killed them... I'm a monster..."

I moaned as I slid to the floor and covered my face. That was it, wasn't it? The whole issue, I was the real monster, the one who survived when innocent people had died for me and I didn't even remember them. Three innocent, caring people: a family, a mother, a father and a child all died and yet I survived. I sobbed; I was hysterical, and in my hysteria I didn't hear the sound of someone leaving my room.

_That's right, you survived and now you're just sitting here wallowing in misery._

I was arguing with myself again, but I was right. I survived. They died for me to survive. I may not remember them but I know this was not the way to repay them for their sacrifice. I was angry with myself so I stood, turned around, and punched my door.

Except I didn't; I punched through my door. My fist went completely through the solid oak door and out the other side. I stared at my fist in bewilderment. It was like downstairs when I completely cracked the door in half, only this time the energy was focused into a single point. It was so cool.

And then I realized I couldn't pull my fist back through without the wood tearing my flesh off.

"Yuzuki?" Kurama's muffled voice hit my ears from the other side of my bedroom door. "Is everything alright?"

"Uh..." I started as I looked pathetically at my fist still in my door. "I appear to have gotten my arm stuck through my door..."

"You what?" The door handle to my bedroom jiggled and I realized I had locked the door.

_Well that's a new habit._

"It appears your door is locked." Kurama stated.

"I guess you should have brought your lock pick set with you fox." Someone muttered; it had to be Hiei. I could hear as his sword was unsheathed even from this distance

I panicked, he was going to cut my door down I just knew it. "Wait you bloody wanker! Don't cut my bloody door down! WAIT!" I smacked my free hand into my bathroom door and the mist-like substance that had come out of my hand before slid across the oak; and it melted.

"Holy bloody hell!" I shrieked as I leapt back the moment my arm was free. "By the gods, what in the bloody hell is that stuff?!"

In my panicked state I missed when Hiei sliced the hinges of my door off until I heard it hit the ground. My head whipped around as I held up my hands in defense and another stream of that insubstantial substance left my palm again. The gray-red like mist floated forward into my bedroom where it hung in the air like an amorphous nimbus cloud.

Kurama was fascinated with it and moved forward into the room to get a better look while Hiei eyed it suspiciously from the doorway.

_Probably the safer choice._ I noted.

"Don't touch that!" Botan shouted as she leapt in front of Kurama.

"What is that?" Kurama asked as he looked at it around her

"It's plasma!" She squeaked as she tried to back Kurama away from the substance.

"Plasma? Plasma?! That stuff came out of my bloody hand! Why is plasma coming out of my bloody hand?!" I shouted as I started to become hysterical again.

"Yuzuki you need to calm down. In the state you're in now you could probably bring the house down."

"Calm down? You want me to bloody calm down?!" I snapped as I paced on the other side of the liquidated door. "Two days ago I had no bloody powers. I was basically just like a human except I lived on this bloody forsaken little world you stuck me on. Now, when **these** guys show up randomly I'm not only attacked for the first time in bloody forever but I've suddenly developed the ability to melt anything I bloody touch! Now you tell me, just how in the bloody hell am I supposed to just 'calm down'?"

I was fuming and when neither of the people I assumed would give me answers I just glared angrily at them before my head snapped to one side and my cheek started burning. Stunned silence filled the room.

"You're pathetic." Hiei snapped.

I blinked a few times, shook my head, and turned my attention. "Did you just slap me...?"

The glare he gave me could peel paint off the Human's Sistine Chapel.

"Well two can play at that game." I shoved him. Or maybe I should say I shoved at him because that was a better description. My hands never touched his chest but he went backwards anyway. I could feel something, like directional gravity; pull him back and away from me. In fact I could almost see the spot where I had caused the temporary shift in gravity that pulled him. The flame-but-not-flame plasma exploded in a quick blast of fire when it met the gravity vortex.

"Okay..." I said in a whoosh as I stared in disbelief at where the plasma and the gravity had met and combusted. "I am not enjoying this dream. Because that's what it is right? A dream? It can't be real. None of this can be happening. I'm just going to wake up and it'll be two days earlier and no one will be here and I'll be back in my basic, boring life where nothing ever happens. Right? Because I cann**ot **handle this anymore."

I slid to the floor as my knees finally gave out and I fell in the gooey mess that was my door. "Lovely..." I muttered. "At least it's not going to kill me."

Yusuke and Kuwabara had appeared probably somewhere during my hysterical melt down. They seemed to have been enjoying the show.

Kurama made his way over to me, gingerly stepping through the mess on the floor, and knelt down beside me, checking my forehead for the fever I was sure was still there. "I think you've had more than enough for one day, what do you say? Let's get you back into bed."

I shrugged off his helping hand before I carefully made my way to my feet. "I think I want to clean up first. If I could get some pri-" I stopped, and then groaned. "My door..."

"We can hang something to cover the door for you for now and then we will have it fixed as soon as possible. In the meantime we'll make sure that no one is on the second floor if you are still up here." Kurama answered with a smile as he stood as well. "Do you have an old blanket or sheet you are not attached to?"

"There's a linen closet across from the hall bathroom. I've never used anything in there since I never needed that many blankets. There's a dark one on the top of the pile. It looks like it's brand new. Actually I'm sure it's brand new, I got it with one of the food baskets. It should be long enough to cover the door."

"Then we'll use that one. Yusuke, Kuwabara there is a tool shed just outside the kitchen door. I'm sure there are nails and a regular hammer in there, if you could get them. Botan, if you would be so kind and get the blanket?"

They were quite efficient, except for Hiei as he was still glaring darkly at me from the far side of my bedroom; his hand was on his sword. I also noticed that Kurama was stood a step ahead of me and slightly in front of me; I assumed it was for my safety.

When the makeshift door was in place everyone filed out of my room with Kurama trailing just behind Hiei; just in case. I looked down at the goo on my floor as I heaved a heavy sigh.

"If only you could just magically rebuild yourself into a door." I grumbled as I turned and to leave my bedroom, bumping into Kurama with a bucket just after pushing the blanket aside.

"I realized we had not dealt with the melted door so I thought I would bring something up for that." He said as I stepped back and rubbed my nose. "I was just going to leave it at the door for you when you wanted it."

"Thanks..." I mumbled and took the bucket from him.

"Also, I believe this is yours." He held out my katana.

"You have got to be kidding me. Where was it this time?"

"In the kitchen in the pantry. Do you normally store it in there?"

"Absolutely not." I answered as I snatched the thing out of his hands. "I swear someone has cursed this bloody sword so that it just up and moves on its own whenever it feels like it. I'm sure you're going to find it again when I put it back in my bedroom, especially since the door is missing."

Kurama chuckled. "I'll keep that in mind. If you would prefer I could clean up the mess for you, I don't want you straining yourself since you're sick."

I smiled and stepped aside, holding the blanket open for him. "Thank you. That is very kind of you; I don't think anyone else would have offered that to me."

Kurama walked past me and into the room, where he sank down onto his knees where he began sopping up the liquefied wood and metal and putting it into the bucket. "How are you feeling?" He questioned as he looked over his shoulder at me.

"Weak..." I admitted as I sunk onto my bed and watched him. "Sick too I guess though I've never thought l would use that term on myself. Shell-shocked I think would work too, at least about all the weird stuff I've been doing."

"Botan thinks that the stress about all of us arriving here and you being attacked was probably what triggered the sudden onslaught of changes in you. She would also like you to go to the Reikai for a checkup, but I told her that that would depend on you, I wasn't going to force you to do something you don't want to."

Yuzuki blushed at the care Kurama was taking with her. "It would probably be best, wouldn't it?"

"Most likely, but I'm not going to make you do something you don't want to do."

"Why are you so nice to me when no one else is?" I asked as I pulled my legs to my chest before I winced and put my legs back down and gripped my bedding instead. "I don't feel like I've done anything to deserve it."

Kurama blinked before he set his stuff down and walked over to me where he sat down beside me. "You don't need to do anything to deserve someone treating you well."

I laughed as I shook my head, my hair coming loose from the ponytail I had tried to put it in this morning and hadn't had a chance to redo it. "You should tell that to Hiei, I think he has taken the job to personally oversee the personal humiliation of me."

"He's always like that; don't let him get to you." Kurama answered as he tucked my loose hair behind my ear; I blushed.

He got up and picked up the pail he had used to clean up my liquefied bathroom door before turning around and coming back towards my bed and the blanket-door. "Well, it's late, I think you should get some rest then we can talk about possibly going to the Reikai tomorrow."

I nodded slightly. "Yeah, okay. Thanks again."

Kurama smiled. "If you need anything you know where to find us."

"Mm-hmm." I answered. The blanket fell back in place as Kurama left, I sat there staring at the "door" for a while as I mulled over the events of the day. Was it only a day? It felt like it had been much, much longer but no one indicated that it had been any longer than a single day. I thought back to Kurama and how kind he was to me; heat crept up my neck and cheeks as I thought about his smile.

_He's cute, and nice... I like a lot._

_What about Hiei?_

I paused at that. Sure, he had eyes similar to that of the boy from my visions and we did have that moment where we shared something when we both touched my necklace, but did I like him? He was rude, cold, distant, harsh, but he had moments where he seemed as though he truly cared. He caught me when I fell back into the table, though he also pushed me away and drenched me with the bucket anyway, but he also pulled me back before Cody could break my ribs and he saved me from those demons that could have, would have killed me. He helped me break into that hidden hallway in my house, granted that he made snide remarks while doing so, but he was the one who helped me not someone else. Sure Kurama carried me into the house and took care of me, but Hiei seemed as though he secretly and truly cared.

_I have to be overthinking this. There's no way that he cares about me at all._

_But what if he does?_

…

I sighed and stood up, shaking my hair free from the useless ponytail as I stalked to my bathroom on shaky legs. There's no way that Hiei liked me, I was misreading his actions around me that was all. I haven't been around another person in basically the entire time I lived here and I clearly didn't understand the motivations behind a person's actions and that was more than prevalent in what Hiei was doing. I huffed angrily to myself as I stripped off my clothing and caught sight of my back in the mirror.

The angry scars that covered my back reminded me of early this morning when Kurama helped me come back from my nightmare. It was the first time anyone had answered my pain, the first time someone heard me cry out. The first time...

_He wasn't the one who calmed you though._

I pinched my lips together and stared into the mirror. I wasn't going to argue with myself, I did that enough and I didn't want to feel anymore crazier than I was already feeling. It had been far too long since I had someone other than my own mind to speak to and I was going to put an end to that right now.

So, instead of dwelling on the idea of feelings and emotions towards two men who were probably leaving within the next couple of days I climbed into the shower, cleaned myself, got out, dried off and crawled into bed where I fell asleep fairly quickly with the image of two men standing side by side in my head; one light and caring the other dark and brooding.


	6. History Lesson

**Chapter 5: History Lesson**

I woke in a sweat like I usually did, but this time it wasn't about the nightmare I had on almost a nightly basis, it been a dream about two lights, or energies, or something else but I couldn't quite come up with the right word for them. One of the energies was light, warm, soft, caring and smelled of roses and fresh turned earth while the other was dark, harsh, cold, and secretive and smelled of wood burning fires and spices. They pulled at me, tugging me in two different directions; one promised safety, comfort, normality, complacency and the other promised passion, desire, adventure and heartbreak. It made little sense in my mind but the quote from the human poet Alfred Tennyson popped into my mind as I thought about them:

_I hold it true, whate'er befall;_

_I feel it when I sorrow most;_

_'Tis better to have loved and lost_

_Than never to have loved at all._

Was that my mind trying to tell me that I was supposed to go for the one that promised passion and heartbreak? Could I handle pain that was promised with the heartache just to enjoy the passion that would come before it or would I rather live with the comfort and the complacency and avoid the passion and adventure altogether? I just wasn't sure.

Sitting up my head swam and colors wavered in my vision as I struggled to figure out what the dream had meant, but what I could only assume was sickness fogged my mind and made it hard to remember much about the dream outside of the feelings I got from the two sources. I sat there in my bed as I tried to get my head on straight enough where I could feel like I could walk when I heard footsteps coming down the hall to my room. The footsteps stopped just before they reached my bedroom door.

"Oh, Hiei, I didn't expect to see you there." Kurama's voice came through my blanketed door

"What are we still doing here fox? The humans had their rest; we don't need to stay here any longer. We are wasting time." Hiei's voice was a low rumble that danced the line of quiet and anger.

"Yuzuki-san is in need of help," Kurama stated simply. "She helped us when we requested it; we can't just abandon her when she is in need of help."

"We owe her nothing." Hiei snapped. "This is just a ploy to spend time with her because of your feelings towards her."

"I'm not sure where you're going with that statement, but no, this isn't some "ploy" to stay here with her because I like her or something. Yes, she was a very dear friend of mine and her supposed death affected me deeply, but I would not push my friendship on her when she's having a difficult time as it is just living a normal life without any memories. Yes, I like her, but my feelings are more of that of a friend concerned about a friend. Besides, the others may not have noticed, but I've seen the way you look at her. I don't know if you knew her in the past, but I can see that there is something there."

A loud thump followed closely behind Kurama's statement. "I don't know where you're getting that idea fox but that thing in there is weak, pathetic and annoying. There is nothing to like." Hiei hissed.

I sat there, my fists bunched in the blankets as my heart wrenched in pain at Hiei's admission. I couldn't understand why I hurt so much over a man I didn't even know, I didn't even like, but I did.

_But you did know him and you do like him. You saw those flashbacks._

_I don't know what I saw, I don't know him, and I can't like him._

_You're only lying to yourself._

Didn't I make a note to myself not to argue with myself?

I wanted to curl into a ball and cry over all of it, the images I saw when Hiei and I touched over my necklace, the tender way which he treated me when he saw the scars or when he saved me from those demons, but instead I sat there with my head hanging as I tried to keep my breathing even so they didn't know I was listening.

"Say what you want Hiei, you can feel whatever you want for her, but understand this, if you hurt her in any way I will hurt you in return." Kurama's voice was nearly silent but even separated by walls I could hear the promise behind those words. He would truly hurt his friend for me.

The seconds ticked by in silence until finally I heard footsteps tread away from my room and down the hall to the stairs. Tension released from my body making me feel like if I hadn't been sitting already that I would have fallen over. My breath whooshed out of me in one big wave and I began to shake, although I wasn't sure what was causing the shaking, my emotions or my sickness.

"Yuzuki-san?" Kurama's voice was soft as he called my name from the other side of the door making me wonder how long he knew I was awake for. Did he know I heard the whole thing? "Can I come in?"

"Sure," I mumbled as I pushed my curly hair from my face, trying to comb it the best I could with my fingers.

Kurama pushed aside the blanket and entered my room with a smile that didn't reach his eyes; I was almost certain now that he knew I heard everything. "How are you feeling this morning?"

"Debilitated." I answered as I was tired of saying weak. "I'm not enjoying this sick thing very much."

Kurama chuckled softly. "No I don't suppose you would. Do you think you're feeling well enough to travel?"

"I guess so," I responded with a huff. "It's not like this is going to get any better from what I understand."

"No, probably not. It would be best to get you in to see someone as soon as possible."

"Well then I best get dressed." I said as I stood up and went to my closet.

"I'll be just outside when you're ready." The swish of fabric let me know that he had gone through the door and was just outside as he said.

I pursed my lips as I looked at my clothing options. There wasn't much so I chose quickly before I went to the bathroom and cleaned myself up some. Standing there in my vacant doorway I stared at the blanket that blocked my room from the hall and sighed; I was going to have to find doors. I didn't even know where to find doors to replace them with, but I was in sore need of doors suddenly.

_I need two doors to fix my house up again._

_Three._

_Three?_

_The door downstairs._

I paused. I had forgotten about the hallway downstairs with the rooms I had never seen until yesterday; I broke one of those doors too. I groaned about needing to fix things I didn't know how to replace before I trudged myself to the blanket and shoved it aside; I wasn't dealing with this problem right now.

"Ready to go?" Kurama asked as I made my way out of my room.

"I guess so." I responded as I clipped back my unruly hair from my face.

"Everything's going to be fine." Kurama said with a smile as he held his arm out to me. After a moment's hesitation I took it and he led me slowly down the stairs and out of the house where the rest of the gang was waiting.

"Botan is going to open a portal directly to the Spirit Palace in the Reikai. There, we'll see if there is anything we can do about your health. I'm not quite sure, but I believe the King of the Palace will probably want to see you as well."

"The King...?"

"His name is Koenma, his appearance might be off putting but don't let it fool you, he is quite old and has been in charge for a while."

I nodded slowly as I thought about what he said. I wasn't really sure what he meant by the King's appearance but I didn't really have the time to ask as we made our way out of the house and joined the crowd.

"All ready?" Botan asked in a cheery voice before opening a rift between my world and the Reikai. She went through quickly followed shortly thereafter by the rest of the group except for Kurama and myself.

Kurama turned his attention to me. "If anything happens and you do not wish to stay any longer just tell me and I will do whatever I can to help, alright?"

I nodded. "Thanks…" I mumbled quietly.

Kurama smiled brilliantly before leading us both through the portal and into the Reikai.

I blink repeatedly to adjust to the brightness of the world I had just stepped into only to notice the massive doors before me.

_Does an elephant need to go through these or something? They're just HUGE! That's just unnecessary. _

Images flashed in my head making me feel as if I had been in front of these doors once before. The side of my hand began to throb from where, in my vision, I had been hitting the large doors repeatedly to have someone open them. This time though, the massive doors rolled open slowly but without sound on well-oiled hinges and the gang made their way through the winding halls of the overly large and probably ridiculously expensive palace to a room with doors that were nearly as large as the front doors. I shook my head to clear away the residual images and stuffed them back where they came from

_Is this like for a giant or something?! Why are all these doors so overly large?_

"Well here we are." Botan chirped as she looked over at me. "Koenma requested that you come see him first before we did anything else."

_As if that was explanation enough for the whole ridiculous situation._

The doors rolled aside just as smoothly and silently as the last pair of doors to reveal a massive desk that took up nearly the whole room. I had to crane my neck up to see the top of it, and there, at the very top, sat a toddler complete with bib and pacifier. I blinked.

_What the…_

"I must be sicker than I thought." I muttered to myself.

"No, that is indeed the King of the Reikai." Kurama whispered in my ear, his breath tickling my neck. "That is in fact Koenma."

I bit my tongue, hard enough to taste the metallic taste of blood, to keep from saying something really stupid. Of course the King of the Reikai and all the spirits that pass through these doors is a bloody toddler.

_And I'm a baboon._

_At this point…_

_Shut up._

"Ah I see you arrived without incident." The toddler said as he finally looked up from his paperwork.

"Yeah, walking through a portal is real hard." I muttered.

"Well, with the way things are with you right now I would not be surprised if you collapsed the portal all on your own." He responded; I paled. I hadn't thought he would hear me.

"I'm sure you have a lot of questions about what is going on right now and I hope I can answer them for you, but at this point there may be things that I am not able to tell you."

"Wonderful." I tried not to sound like a whiny child but it was difficult at this point.

"How about some privacy." Koenma looked at the rest of the group. "How about… everyone out!"

"But-" Kurama spoke up.

"Nope, this is something that needs to be discussed with her only." Koenma interrupted.

Kurama looked at me. "Like I said earlier, if you need anything…"

"Don't worry about it, it's not like anything's going to happen." I said quickly. The others were eyeing Kurama and me with suspicion and it was starting to make my cheeks an uncomfortable shade of red that I wouldn't be able to pass off as the illness very quickly.

Kurama smiled and ushered the rest of the group out, but not before my eyes met with Hiei's. Something passed through them quicker than I could gage then he simply turned and walked out the door.

"Would you like a chair?" Koenma asked as he nodded to an Ogre that stood by a smaller door in the back wall.

"Sure, why not."

The Ogre disappeared through the door.

"How are you feeling?"

"Like death warmed over." I nearly snapped.

"Mmmm…." He made a noncommittal noise as he wrote something down.

Silence descended on the room as we waited for the Ogre retainer to return with the chair. Finally the door opened and in he came with a nice looking chair which he sat next to me then wandered back into his corner of the room. I sat down.

"Now that you're comfortable I would like to try to explain what is happening to you the best I can. Where would you like to start?"

"This sickness… Why am I ill? Why can I… do the things I've been able to do? What am I?"

"Hahaha, one at a time." Koenma said. "Well I would assume that you are unwell because your body is trying to acclimate to the abilities it should have been training since birth."

"Abilities… Since birth…" I repeated mostly to myself.

"Yes, I believe that everything, and possibly more, of what you're doing now should have come to you slowly over the course of several years giving you a chance to learn and control them. I would guess that at this point you have little to no control over it, correct?"

"Yeah…"

"It's to be expected." Koenma seemed to look over something on his desk before continuing. "The reasoning behind the abilities is mostly unknown to me at this moment mostly because it's not really anything that was ever recorded. You are very unique, even amongst your kind, so I really have no idea what you can and cannot do at this point."

"My kind…?"

"Yes, your people called themselves guardians of the heavens. They were originally two separate factions, one that ruled the day and one that ruled the night. You, Yuzuki, are a production of both."

"Where are the others? Can I meet them?"

"Unfortunately there is no way for you to meet them..." He said sadly.

I sat back in the chair slowly as I processed what he said. "So… I'm alone…?"

"That would be the case."

"And… My family…?"

"Ah… that was one of the most unfortunate events… As I'm sure you are aware, in some sense, your family is also… gone…"

"So I'm the only one… There are no others like me…" I said as I tried to process what he told me. "Why can't I remember any of this?"

"That would be because you came here after the accident and had us remove your memories of that time."

"Why would I do that?"

"Well… I don't really know for sure, but you were quite insistent on the matter. We were concerned that doing so would possibly damage you in irrevocable ways, but you appeared to have come out of it just fine, though you seemed to have had struggled against actually losing the memories in the end. We removed any traces of your previous life and set a watch on you as we were still concerned about any after effects. You didn't seem to display anything, and none of your abilities surfaced after removing such a large portion of your memories so we breathed easy, so to say."

"And that thing… The one that Botan said was after me… What of that?"

"Ah… That…" Koenma looked at me in a very serious matter. "That was something I had hoped you had not heard about or remembered. We are unsure of what it really is as we haven't really delved into the matter. We had set up a block in your mind and around all parts of you that portrayed your true identity in hopes that it wouldn't be able to find you and it appears to have worked."

I pinched my lips in a thin line as I thought about the voice in my head after I remembered the "accident" as Koenma had put it. Do I tell him that I heard the creature that was after me?

_No… I think that I will keep that to myself. It could have just been a fluke._

_And what if it comes after you like it said it would?_

…

I didn't have an answer for that.

"Is there anything I can do about being so sick?"

"At this point I'm not really sure, I will have our finest physicians look you over to make sure that you are not, in fact, in any danger, but from what I can tell you will probably need to let this work out of your system as the abilities you possess surface and settle."

I nod slowly as I stand from the chair.

"Is there anything else?" Koenma asked as he noticed me standing.

"No…" I answered weakly. "No, I think that's about all I want to hear at this point."

Koenma eyed me carefully. His tiny body easily made someone think he was just a toddler, but behind that facade was a shrewd mind; he knew there was more but didn't push.

"I'll just be leaving now."

"I'll have Botan show you the way to the medical room."

The large doors behind me rolled open slowly to reveal the scattering of bodies from the door.

_Ah… if they're going to try and eavesdrop that can at least do a better job at it._ I snickered in spite of myself.

"Where is the medical wing?" I asked the group, holding myself slightly away from them. It was still hard to swallow everything Koenma just told me.

"I can lead you there." Botan said with a cheery smile.

"No, that's okay. Just tell me where I need to go."

"Oh… uh…" Botan shot a glance at Kurama but he just shook his head slightly. "Well if you head down this hall and make a right you can't miss it."

"Alright, thanks." I turned and left quickly as I felt tears suddenly start burning in my eyes. I was going to cry and I had no idea why, I just knew I didn't want to be around them when it happened.

Botan's directions truly sucked, but she was right about the fact that you couldn't miss the medical wing as it had a giant red cross over the entry hall. I wandered in and looked around, noticing the staff milling about with little to do, so, after a moment's hesitation, I walked up to the first person I saw.

"Hi… Koenma said I was supposed to come here for a checkup." I muttered to the woman who had large pointed cat-like ears, complete with tail which swished lazily from time to time.

"Oh, you're that girl everyone's talking about, aren't you?" She said as she turned around. "Come on, let's get you started."

She had me step up onto a scale, which I did after hesitating for a moment. I knew I weighed very little and I wasn't sure how she would react to that.

"Oh my, you're quite the petite thing aren't you?" She noted which made me just want to beat my head on a wall.

"Yeah… Always been light…" I answered slowly.

She measured my height and jotted them both down before she led the way down the hall into a room. "I'll need you to undress for a complete physical exam then we'll run some blood tests and you'll be all done." She pulled a curtain across the door after shutting it.

Sighing, I stripped quickly and stood before her completely bare and totally uncomfortable.

_I hate being this vulnerable._

_Then don't get sick._

_Right, like I can just tell myself not to get sick. Hey self, how about you don't get sick?_

She was quick and thorough with her exam and made it as unobtrusive as possible and I was able to dress in short time.

"Right, now, if you can sit over there we will get your blood drawn." She rummaged through a drawer and pulled out sterile needles with four small tubes that I assumed were to hold my blood. Sitting down I held out my left arm and waited for her to begin drawing my blood.

"What an interesting color." She commented which made me look down at my arm where the needle was.

_Holy… Is my blood shimmering?_

The blood that spilled into the small tube attached to the needle was still red, but it had a brightness and a shimmer to it as if it were a liquefied jewel. I bit my tongue to not make a comment about how disturbing that appeared to be.

"How fascinating…" She murmured as she finished filling the last vial of my blood. "I'd love to find out what makes it that color."

"Uh…" I started. I really had no idea what to tell her.

"Oh sorry." She laughed lightly "Well we're all done here. From the preliminary analysis of your physical I would say that there isn't anything life threatening to you at this moment but I won't know for sure until I get the blood test back and that will be tomorrow at the earliest. For now I would just suggest you go home and take it easy. It should all blow over in a couple of days."

"Thanks…" I grumbled as I made my way out of the medical wing. Making my way back to the main hall where the exit was, I struggle to keep my emotions under control as it seemed that I still had the annoying urge to cry. As I walked the long hall I came to the wide entryway of the castle and slowly passed by a small single door set off to one side when I suddenly stopped. Pain seared into my brain upon the sight of the door making it nearly impossible for me to continue past it, instead I turned to it.

"_**Yuzuki run!"**_

A female voice echoed in my head causing me to stagger and hold my temples. Screaming seemed to come from the door and enter my mind as images of the door and what possibly lay beyond it. Slowly, almost completely on their own volition, my feet pulled me to the door. I couldn't do anything but stare at it as I held out my hand to grasp the handle.

"No, Yuzuki don't open that door!" Botan's voice cried out to me but I couldn't hear it. I couldn't stop myself even if I wanted to, even if I thought I shouldn't open the door, I had no control of what I was now doing. The voices in my mind that called my name seemed to hold their power over me.

"Someone stop her! She can't go through that door!" Botan's voice rose in a panic, but it seemed like no one was close enough to stop me.

My hand just brushed the cold metal of the handle and the pain and voices intensified. Tears that had been sitting just inside my eyes slowly escaped as a pained gasp broke past my lips. My body trembled as I struggled to make myself stop, to pull back, to step away, but I couldn't.

"I… can't… stop…" I finally struggled. "They won't let me."

"Yuzuki no!"

A strong hand wrapped around my wrist just before my fingers closed around the handle and pulled my hand away slowly, as if it was a struggle even for them to do so; their hand felt cool on my suddenly feverish skin. Their body moved into my line of sight, breaking my eye contact with the door and suddenly the voices stopped, the pain subsided. My breath came out in a shaky sigh as I blinked rapidly to clear away the tears.

"Hiei…" I murmured when I saw the person before me. His breath came out in steamy puffs as I noticed the edges of his lips seemed to be slightly bluish. "Why is it so cold…?"

"Because you took all the heat out of the room." He answered softly though the hand on my wrist was still firm as it kept my hand away from the door.

"I, what?" Suddenly the pain that I thought had gone came back three times as painful. I cried out and doubled over clutching my stomach.

"Yuzuki-san!" Kurama's voice was filled with concern as he approached.

"Don't come any closer!" I called out as I struggled with the pain that burned through my body. "I… I don't know what's happening."

"It seems that you have one of the abilities of the Guardians of the Day." It was Koenma's voice that answered the unasked question. "The ability to pull energy into yourself from the air around you. Quite handy to use for large scale attacks if it's ever needed."

"H-How do I make it stop." I gritted out.

"You can't unless you release the energy from yourself, which would cause an explosion."

"Urk..." I made a noise as the energy fluctuated inside my body and blood slowly dripped from my nose. "Open a god damn portal to my world…"

Silence reigned in the room as everyone looked at each other to figure out what to do. I started coughing, blood splattering the hand I used to cover my mouth as Hiei still clutched the other one. The energy within me was tearing my body apart and if something didn't happen soon I was going to be the one to explode.

"Do it now!" I screamed.

Koenma waved his hand and a portal opened up next to me.

"Push me through…" I gritted out as I glanced at Hiei. "I can't move you need to push me through."

Hiei stared at me silent and unmoving for what felt like a lifetime.

"Please Hiei; I can't hold this much longer." I begged.

"Tch…" He made a disapproving noise before he pulled my close to his body and leapt through the portal with me in his arms.

We landed with a thud in the vibrant green grass of my world where we rolled for several feet before finally coming to a stop. He stood up, still clutching my tight to his chest.

"Please… you need to move away." I pleaded.

"Yuzuki…" Hiei's voice was soft, softer than I had ever heard it.

"If you don't move away I will take you with me when I can't hold it anymore." I caught his gaze. "Please, I can't do that; I couldn't handle knowing I killed you." I shoved his chest causing him to take a step back from he as the air began to shimmer and crackle around my body; I had seconds left.

A figured leapt from the trees and snatched Hiei before he realized and moved away quickly and, just before the energy without me exploded, I was thankful for whoever had just saved him from the fate that I was now about to endure.


End file.
